One of my most memorable perl related moments was the first perl conference (1997, I think) in San Jose. Pretty much everyone was there, and it ended with a party at Larry's house. That's where I realized that as a programmer I wasn't in the same league as Mark-Jason Dominus, Damian Conway and many others (not to mention Larry, but then I already knew that :-) - people who have broader vision and maybe a deeper understanding of what perl and its infrastructure needed to achieve. I guess that as a programmer who hasn't got a CS degree (I majored in Geography, and that was an Economics/Social Sciences degree, not a BS) I tend to see the immediate practical needs more than the broader requirements.

All in all though being involved in the perl and Sybase communities has taught me most of what I know, and has also given me the opportunities that I had (I moved to CA from Switzerland because of my perl/sybperl "skills", and I now have a job at a large financial institution in Geneva because of the things that I have learned and explained to others regarding Sybase...)

Michael